US violence in protests over death ‘alarming’

‘230 killed’ in protests in Iran

AN Iranian politician has said 230 people were killed in November’s anti-government protests in Iran, the official news agency reported.

This is the first time a prominent Iranian figure has given a death toll figure for November’s protests. The unrest was the most widespread and violent Iran had seen since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Irna quoted Mojtaba Zolnouri, the head of the influential parliamentary committee for national security and foreign policy, as saying: “The incidents saw 230 killed.”

DOWNING Street has raised concerns about “very alarming” violence and the arrest of journalists covering the unrest sparked by the death of George Floyd.

Boris Johnson’s administration said people must be allowed to protest peacefully and reporters should be free to do their job.

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets across the USA but some protests were marred by violence in cities from Philadelphia to Los Angeles and close to the White House in Washington.

The protests – which have been echoed around the world including in the UK – were triggered by the death of George Floyd, a black man who pleaded for air as a police officer pressed a knee into his neck in Minneapolis.

“The violence we have seen in the US over recent days is clearly very alarming,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.

“People must be allowed to protest peacefully. As the Foreign Secretary said yesterday, the footage of George Floyd’s death is deeply distressing and our thoughts are with all those who have been affected.”

The spokesman added that reported arrests and incidents of journalists being injured are “very concerning”.

“Journalists all around the world must be free to do their job and to hold authority to account without fear of arrest or violence.”

Derek Chauvin, the police officer who pressed his knee on to Mr

Floyd’s neck, has been charged with murder.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “The suspect has been charged and there is a federal review under way. We would hope and expect justice to be done.”

In London, thousands of people marched to protest against the death of Mr Floyd. The Black Lives Matter demonstration on Sunday started in Trafalgar Square around lunch time, where people chanted Mr Floyd’s name and knelt on the floor en masse, before heading to the US embassy in Battersea.

One demonstrator said the protests were “very important because it is sending a clear message that we have had enough racial injustice in our country”.

Isabelle Orsini, 20, is originally from New York, but now lives in

Kensington. She told PA news agency: “The US obviously has a much deeper and darker history of black discrimination compared to the UK.

“The reason people are so angry is because this is reopening wounds that go back hundreds of years. It is very important that we do whatever it takes to tell our government that racism will not be tolerated.”

After Battersea, protesters – many wearing masks – crossed the river again, and headed through affluent Chelsea, Knightsbridge and Notting Hill, before gathering at the base of Grenfell Tower where 72 people died in a 2017 fire.

A reverend at a church on Trafalgar Square, where the protest started, said she was “very sympathetic” towards those marching but expressed some concern about how close they were.